Boston Celtics starting point guard Kemba Walker recently spoke with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks about what life was like at the Disney NBA campus sometimes referred to as the ‘bubble,’ and whether the comparisons to a major AAU basketball event were accurate.
Such meetings, which tended to feature a number of potential future NBA prospects, were very collegial, with players mingling off the court at the event as well as squaring off in games.
The UConn product agreed with that assessment, and described how the campus at the Wide World of Sports complex was shaping up in a very familiar way.
“It’s very, very similar for sure. Whenever you go downstairs, you’re going to see somebody,” began Walker.
“The other night, me and [Jayson Tatum] were walking to get some food and we’d seen LeBron. We saw LeBron, J.R. [Smith], [Chris] Dudley and [Kyle Kuzma]. It’s rare. It’s very rare to see ‘Bron walking by himself … I was telling somebody he probably hasn’t done that since he was nine years old. Being able to be so comfortable just walking around, not worried about people coming up to him and being bothered, asking for something.”
“Now, he’s just regular, you know?” he added, quickly clarifying his comments about James lest they be misinterpreted.
“Not regular — he’s just able to be comfortable and walk around comfortably, so I think that’s pretty cool.”
The quarantine component in a lot of ways introduces a buffer zone from fans and paparazzi for players, who get the sort of “normal person” experience in a place like a Disney resort that would otherwise be impossible.
By no means does it make up for the stress and loss of the pandemic, but it does seem to be something these players are enjoying.
So long as they don’t mind the rooms, anyway.
